1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of safety alert systems and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for providing proactive safety, optional security, and emergency response for children and/or pets trapped in a vehicle.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
It is quite well known that particularly pets and children, and occasionally elderly or disabled persons are sometimes left in a parked vehicle with no means for exit. Heat and/or other ambient conditions may change to form a dangerous or even fatal situation for a pet or a person. At the time of this application systems for vehicles are typically focused on theft prevention with the use of tamper alarms and accident reporting systems such as the well known On Star system for reporting accidents and the like and directing responders to the scene.
One challenge with systems as known in the art is that typically no proactive information is collected by the system and all of the system knowledge results from sensor activation, which occurs primarily after people are in the vehicle and the vehicle is turned off, while the driver of the vehicle leaves with occupants still inside the vehicle.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a mobile alert system for vehicles that may collect data and that may use available data about an area to provide proactive security information before an owner leaves, the vehicle.